Slovenia is not Slovakia!

A few new states were created in Europe at the beginning of the 90s. Two big countries, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, broke into several smaller states. Two of them have similar names: Slovakia and Slovenia. By their natives, they are called Slovensko and Slovenija.

The names can be similar, but these countries have different past – Slovakia rose from the Czechoslovakia, Slovenia from Yugoslavia. While Slovenia suffered of a war conflict, Slovakia separated from its Czech neighbour in a peaceful way.

These countries don’t share borders, they never did (see the map below – Slovakia in blue circle, Slovenia in red).

Both countries are members of the European Union and NATO. Since 1st of January 2007 (Slovenia) and 1st of January 2009 (Slovakia), both countries are members of the European Monetary Union – the so-called Euro Zone.

But Slovenia is surrounded by Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Italy and it is a coastal country, on the border of the Balkans and Central Europe. Whereas Slovakia is situated directly in Central Europe with no access to the sea. The capital of Slovenia is Ljubljana and the capital of Slovakia is Bratislava. Slovenia has a population of about 2 mil., Slovakia 5.4 mil.

Quick Comparison Table

Country Details

Slovakia

Slovenia

Formal Country Name

Slovak Republic

Republic of Slovenia

Local Short Country Name

Slovensko

Slovenija

Formal Local Country Name

Slovenská Republika

Republika Slovenija

National Flag

Rose from…

former-Czechoslovakia

former-Yugoslavia

Capital City

Bratislava

Ljubljana

ISO Codes

SK, SVK, 703

SI, SVN, 705

International Road Sign

SK

SLO

TLD (Top Level Domain)

.sk

.si

International Sport Symbol

SVK

SLO

International Phone Code

+421 (or 00421)

+386 (or 00386)

Area

49025 sq.km

20256 sq.km

Number of Inhabitants

5.4 million

2 million

Access to Sea

no sea

about 50 km coastline

Former Currency

Koruna (100 halierov)

Tolar (100 stotin)

EURO since…

2009

2007

Time Zone

Central European (GMT+1)

Slovenia and Slovakia in Football

Both countries were there in South Africa on the football worldcup in 2010. Slovenia didn’t qualify to the best 16, but Slovakia did.

Slovakia lost against Netherlands (as it turned out the second best team at this worldcup, they lost only one match in the finals against Spain) in the match for quaterfinals 1:2. But before that, in the F group Slovakia has beaten Italy 3:2 (therefore Italy didn’t qualify to the best 16!), played a draw with New Zealand 1:1 (New Zealand kicked the drawing goal 20 seconds before the end of the match) and has lost against Paraguay 0:2.

Slovenia and Slovakia in Hockey

Slovakia has excelent ice hockey players – 6 times world champion as part of Czechoslovakia and 2002 champion as a separate country. Slovenia barely got to the A group of the Men’s Ice Hockey World Championship – only 6 times in the best 16 teams of the world.

Politicians Mixing Slovakia and Slovenia

George W. Bush: “The only thing I know about Slovakia is what I learned first-hand from your foreign minister, who came to Texas.” This is a quote from US president. He had actually met the leader from Slovenia, not Slovakia. :)

At a news conference in Rome, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, introduced Slovenian Prime Minister Anton Rop to the crowd of journalists. “I’m very happy to be here today with the Prime Minister of Slovakia.” :)

Staff of Slovak and Slovenian embassies meet once a month to exchange wrongly-addressed mail! :)

Who is responsible for this part? I found accidentaly this page in occasion to present my country to Mongolians, to Ghanians, to Urundians here in Chad in Afrika.
And all af them laugh at. All of them (unfortunately for me) recognized the mistake with the flags. All foreiners from Africa and Asia saw the mistake. And all of them saw my red face.
Thank very much you for such proud representation of Slovak Republic.
Shame on you.
I was blushing instead of you front of my colleagues.
BTW Comunist won elections in February 25, 1948, not in 1946 as you wrote. Shame on you.

dorko, thanks for pointing out the mistake, however you could use different words… Maybe you’ll perfect, but here in the real world, mistakes happen… It doesn’t mean we don’t do a good job in presenting Slovakia overall. Next time when someone laughes at you, maybe try to take few deep breaths and then comment.

I so enjoyed reading the page “Slovenia is not Slovakia! I am the president of the American Slovak Cultural Association of the Mahoning Valley which is based in Youngstown Ohio (sister city to Spišská Nová Ves). We encounter this confusion often1 Recently at an exhibit we were trying to find a gentleman§s ancestral village in Slovakia. No matter what resources we checked, we could not locate it. After about 20 minutes his wife joined him and asked what he was doing. He replied “looking for my grandfather’s village”. She looked at our sign, looked at him, and said…”You’re not Slovak, you’re Slovenian! I am glad to know that Americans are not the only ones with this problem!
Ďakujem! Mám rada SlovakRepublik.org!

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